Beginning Ordinary Time

Today's Morning Thought from Mark 2:23-3:6...(2 June 2024)

Mark 2:23-3:6

One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Today's passage is a good way to start off the long stretch of "ordinary time," the season of the Church year that is about the long journey of discipleship and following Jesus. It is a good passage because it reminds us of what is important.

Jesus is inviting us into following him in ways that suspend the kind of ordinary rules and structures by which we rightly order and govern our lives. He asks us to do something harder. Jesus asks us to look at the deeper meanings of the rules and structures, to recognise in them the spirit of love and mercy that is at the the heart of God. Throughout ordinary time, we have the chance to rest and dwell in this heart.

May we hear Jesus calling us into deeper into discipleship. May we follow and may we rest in the merciful heart of God. May we, in the qiuet and long hours of these days, find the peaceful presence of the Spirit showing us the ways to life.